Just about everyone now knows about the important role that vitamin D plays in our overall health and well-being. Vitamin D has been in the headlines for years for good reasons. Vitamin D is critical for bone health and there is emerging evidence that vitamin D helps to prevent various cancers and common chronic diseases. It also helps to reduce the risk of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, obesity and type II diabetes. That’s a lot of work for a simple vitamin!
In many instances vitamin D acts more like a hormone than a vitamin. This is especially true when it comes to your brain. Because this site is dedicated to providing information about the food-induced brain disorder Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome, I will focus the rest of this article on the role of vitamin D in the brain.
Recent research has shown that our brain is loaded with vitamin D receptors, but we are only beginning to understand how important vitamin D is for optimal brain function. In a sense vitamin D acts as a neurosteroid hormone in the brain rather than just a vitamin. There is emerging research indicating that vitamin D plays a key role in two important brain processes: synaptic plasticity and neurotransmitter production.
Synapses are the spaces between neurons where communication takes places. Neurons don’t actually touch each other—they are separated by a narrow space called the synapse. When one neuron wants to talk to another neuron it generates an electrical impulse that travels along a narrow finger called an axon. When the impulse arrives at the synapse it causes chemicals called neurotransmitters to be released into the synapse. These chemicals then hook up with receptors on the other side of the synapse where an electrical impulse is generated in the next cell.
This whole system is plastic in that cells are constantly making new synapses and abandoning old ones. You learn new things be making new synapses. It now appears that vitamin D plays a critical role in this synaptic plasticity.
Vitamin D also seems to play a role in the production of monoamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. Your brain needs adequate amounts of these neurotransmitters to function properly. In diseases like classic major depression, levels of these neurotransmitters tend to be low for reasons that are poorly understood. People with the CARB syndrome form of depression, which unlike classical depression is always associated with weight grain, also have low levels of these critical chemicals. We know why these levels are low in people with CARB syndrome. Long-term exposure to excessive fructose, mainly from sugar and HFCS, and high glycemic carbohydrates, mainly from grains, leads to a depletion of these neurotransmitters. When you have low levels of these neurotransmitters, you end up with up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that are typical of the disease.
If you have been diagnosed with one or more of the following conditions there’s a good chance that you already have CARB syndrome: depression (weight gain type), ADHD, bipolar II, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, PTSD, eating disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and restless leg syndrome. If you do have CARB syndrome then it’s extremely important that you maintain optimal vitamin D levels.
Although low levels of vitamin D are not the cause of CARB syndrome, they can certainly make the disease worse. How do you know if you have low levels of vitamin D? The best way is to go to your physician and have them perform a 25-hydroxy D level. Another good way to monitor your vitamin D level is to join the Grassrootshealth D*Action Project at: http://www.grassrootshealth.net. You pay $60 every six months and they send you a kit to have your vitamin D level measured. This is a worldwide public health effort to address the epidemic of vitamin D deficiency.
For those where sun is not an option, taking a vitamin D supplement is the next best choice. I recommend taking vitamin D3, the most natural form of the vitamin. For the average person, taking 35 units of vitamin D for each pound of body weight should put you in the ballpark. You want to maintain your 25-hydroxy D level between 40 and 60 for optimal health, so test your level every six months to be sure that you are in this range.
If you spend some time on this site, I have given you enough information so you can make your own self-diagnosis of CARB syndrome. Because most physicians are not yet familiar with this new concept, you are somewhat on your own until the medical profession gets up to speed. I am working on that process, but it often takes years for new ideas to be disseminated and accepted by the medical profession. If you have CARB syndrome, you really don’t want to wait years to treat the condition because your health and well-being are at stake. In addition to eliminating sugar, HFCS and grain-based carbohydrates from your diet, maintaining adequate levels of vitamin D is another key component of treatment for CARB syndrome.